Sweet Remembrance part 2
by Mia Sedai
Summary: Another night at Ingleside. The children demand to know what made their parents fall in love at last. COMPLETE


A/N: This all belongs to Lucy Maud Montgomery and I am forever grateful that she invented Anne and Gilbert and all these wonderful characters. I feel as if I know them personally, and my life is better with them in it.  
I am aware that I have mixed the books and the films a little, but oh well. *s* Hope you enjoy!  
  
"Oh I just love these warm summer nights," Anne Blythe sighed wistfully into the air. 

"Yes. Aren't they just amazing?" replied her daughter-in-law, Faith, with a smile. The two women were sitting on the Ingleside porch talking, waiting for their husbands to come home from their day out. Out with the men were also Anne's other son, Shirley, and Faith's younger brother, Carl, and also Kenneth Ford, who were engaged to Anne's youngest daughter, Rilla. The previous night the five men had declared that they intended to spend the entire next day fishing, and that under no circumstances were they to be disrupted by the women. Anne, Faith and the other 'women' agreed without much trouble, seeing as they, too, would gladly accept a day with no one but themselves and their idle chattering to keep them company. 

"I love how the grasshoppers play in the grass, and how the trees get gloomy, and the way this warm breeze caresses my chin," continued Anne and looked around. She was an elderly woman, now, but the passing years had treated her well. They had been filled with much laughter, and quite a few tears, but when all was said and done Anne agreed with herself that she wouldn't be without any of them. 'Tears can teach us what no laughter can,' was her motto, and though she welcomed the laughter like an old friend, and hoped the tears wouldn't come, she did endure them when they did, and tried to see the good things in everything.

"Oh mother, where are they?" 

Rilla Blythe was coming out from the house carrying a plate of plum puffs that she had just made, and, while putting it down on the table she looked into the horizon, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man she loved. 

"He's been away all day and I don't know if I shall endure it much longer!" 

Anne and Faith laughed at her, but in a most friendly way, because they, too, knew what it was like to wait all day to see the beloved and friendly face of the man you were to spend the rest of your life with. Poor Faith knew better than any just what this was like, having had to walk around in anticipation, waiting to hear if her man was ok. And with the smile of an older sister she made Rilla sit down in the nearby chair and started to talk about something she had heard from Jem the other night. 

"Anne," she said and turned to the woman by her side. "Jem told me the other night that you and Gilbert used to hate each other when you were younger. Is this really true?" She arched her eyebrows questioningly and waited for an answer. But Mrs. Blythe only laughed.

 "Yes, dear. Indeed it is true. I just can't see how no one believes us." 

"Oh mother. It is only because we see how much you two love each other now," interrupted Diana, who was coming out from the house as well, followed by her twin-sister, Anne, both carrying their knitting, ready for a calm evening outside their childhood home. Both the girls had just finished their last year at Redmond University, and were home for the summer, trying to find out where life would take them next. Anne smiled at her daughters as they sat down. "Yes, but like I have said before, it was a long road, and it took no less than your father nearly dying before I could see the truth; that I indeed loved him, and could never spend my life with anyone but him."

"Did I hear someone mention my name?" said a man's voice suddenly. All five women jumped, not waiting them home so soon, and they all rose to greet them and hear about the day they had spent. Rilla stole a kiss from Ken, and Faith gave her husband's arm a squeeze, so that he should know how much she had missed him. Anne's eyes shone when she looked at her husband, but there were no physical contact except for the looks she gave him. Rilla looked at her parents and smiled. She hoped that she, too, would love Ken as unconditionally and with as much passion after their being married for 30 years. At least her parents gave her something to follow and look to when things got hard. She could still hardly believe that they had once been sworn enemies. But now she was more eager to hear the other story, and so she said as the men sat down with their women. "Dad, why can't you tell us about the time you nearly died. You promised you would!" Gilbert Blythe looked at his family and smiled. He was still very handsome, had a friendly face, and an even friendlier attitude. Everyone that knew him liked him, and even the younger girls of Glen St. Mary had talked about how 'handsome the doctor must have been in his younger days'. This was, of course, something his wife knew for a fact, and it was she who started to tell the story that had changed her life completely.

"For all of you to understand all this I must explain what had gone on in the previous four years," she began. "Your father and I went to Redmond together, as you all know, and while we were there I started to see that something wasn't as I wanted it to be. I was, at that time, not at all in love with your father, and I wanted nothing but to be his chum, and only that." She smiled a little, thinking about the long gone days, and continued. 

"As you all probably know I stayed at a place called Patty's Place with Priscilla, Stella and Phil, whom you've all met, and we loved our little home. We spent most of our time studying, but Friday's were always open to our callers, and the room was always full of friendly faces and laughter." 

"This wasn't a Friday, though," said Gilbert, who knew exactly what his wife was talking about. "I really can't remember what day it was, but I do remember that I was awfully nervous as I walked down the lane to Patty's Place. In my mind I was saying over and over the speech I had prepared, and my heart was beating ferociously. More than once I was close to turn and walk away, but I knew that I had to do this, or else I would go crazy." He looked at his wife, more tenderly than ever, and said for her to continue. All their listeners were silent, not wanting to say anything out of fear that they would get off-tracked and start to talk about something else.

"I hadn't expected it one bit," said Anne, who in her head was back at Patty's Place, talking to Phil about something and reading. "But the moment the door opened and I saw who it was I knew what was to come. And I dreaded it. I dreaded it more than anything, because I knew what I had to say, and I knew how he would react. And deep down inside, I knew that I ought to say yes, because, though I couldn't admit it to myself, I really did love Gilbert Blythe. And I knew I could never be happy with anyone but him. He was hardly my ideal of a romantic suitor, though, and like I have said before, I was a stubborn girl, and I refused to fall for him. He was my chum, and no one could convince me that he ought to be more than that." 

"Oh mother! How could you have been so wrong?" exclaimed Nan. 

Mrs. Blythe stroked her daughter's hair and said with a sigh, "sometimes we don't see what is right at the tip of our nose, dear. And sometimes, we close our eyes all together for the truth." Nan looked at her mother. "I guess… but go on!"

It was Gilbert's turn to tell the story now, and he did so with as much life and compassion as he could. A part of his heart could still feel the nervousness he had felt that night, and as he looked at Anne he took up the story. 

"I knocked and I asked your mother if she wanted to go for a walk. We both knew what was to come, and I think that in her own way, she was as nervous as I was. So we sat down in the garden behind the house, and then I asked her if she would be my wife." 

Everyone gasped, because even though they had expected it, it was very dramatic, and in their mind's eye they were all picturing the on-going scene. 

"What did you say mom?" asked Shirley, who had kept quiet all evening. Mrs. Blythe looked at her son, then back to her husband. "I said no," was her short answer. "I couldn't have said anything but no. I didn't love him, and I had never wanted to make him care for me like that. And though I had been expecting it for some time, to actually hear him say those words…" she trailed off. "It was… it made my heart go wild, and my mind was racing, and for a brief, brief moment I thought I could marry him, but I said no. Cause the time had not yet come. And we both had a long way to walk before it came to where we are now."

"I had never been that hurt in my life," said Gilbert to his family. "The woman I loved, had always loved, had just refused my proposal, and it felt as if she had ripped off my right arm. I knew I could never be happy without her, but how I was to make her see that was beyond me." His voice was full of emotion. He could never talk about this without feeling some of the same sadness and disappointment he had felt back then. She had refused his proposal, and she had told him right to his face that she didn't love him like he wanted her to. Never before had he felt as helpless. And never had he been as determined to make her see how she really felt.

"After that nothing was ever the same," he continued. "The girl I loved had rejected me, and now I didn't know what to do. I thought everything was hopeless, and I thought I could never be happy again, so I started avoiding her. That's when she met Roy Gardener. And my, my, how I hated him!" 

"Roy Gardener?" asked Faith incredulously. 

Anne nodded. "Yes. He was everything I had ever looked for in a man. He fitted my ideal perfectly. He was 'tall, dark, irresistibly handsome, and melancholy'. He wrote me poems and sent me roses. He had all the qualities I wanted in a man, and we went out for two years." 

Roy Gardener had been perfect, Anne thought to herself. Too perfect. She had never really loved him, but since he fitted her ideal she thought she did. Oh how wrong she had been! "During this time I saw less and less of Gilbert. He came to call on Friday's sometimes, but we were never as good chums as we used to be. Our old friendship had ceased to exist, what was left was a silent wall of unspoken feelings, and the politeness of two people that has once had something, but has now lost every prospect of future relations." 

"Oh how sad!" said Rilla dramatically. "You two weren't even friend?" 

"Of course we were friends," said Gilbert. "But you see my dear Rilla, the blossom of friendship is both pale and scentless compared to the rose of love. I had lost everything I ever dreamed of, and I did not know what to do." 

Anne took her husband's hand and gave it a little squeeze.

"Time went by, and before we knew it we were both full fledged B.A's. Graduation was over, and that night Roy Gardener proposed to me." Again the audience gasped. 

"He did what?" Nan was stunned. She hadn't believed for a second that the relationship with this Roy Gardener had been serious, but then he had proposed! And horror, he was her mother's ideal, and who knew what had happened with her before she actually married Gilbert? 

Anne looked at her daughter and laughed. "Oh don't worry. I said no. I was really flattered for a while, and I had waited eagerly for it to happen. But of course I couldn't marry Roy Gardener. I would never be happy with him. I was still too stubborn to see the truth, that I indeed loved Gilbert, but at least I had enough sense about me to say no to Roy. I can't believe I ever really thought I loved him." 

Nan sighed, feeling very relieved.

"So what happened next?" asked Shirley. 

"What happened was that we both went home without talking much to each other, and we didn't speak at all for the first two months of vacation." 

"How dreadful!" said Nan, looking sad. "It must've been awful." 

Here Anne started speaking again, only this time it was _her_ voice that was sad. "It was. But I didn't think about it much; I was still too busy trying to figure out what to do now that I had rejected Roy. 

"But then one night something happened that changed me forever. I was talking to Marilla and Davy when suddenly Davy said 'Anne, did you know Gilbert Blythe was dying?' At that very moment my heart stopped, and it didn't start beating again for what seemed like days. I begged Marilla to tell me what Davy meant, and she said that Gilbert was down with scarlet fever, and that he was close to death. No one knew anything else, but Marilla told me not to lose hope. She knew that I loved him, of course. Had always known it. My dear, dear Marilla. She was the only mother I ever knew, and she knew me better than anyone." Her voice was full of awe for the late Marilla. The woman who had taken her to her home, even though she wasn't a boy, and who had raised her to be the woman she was today. Without her, Anne had no idea where she would've been. Again she looked at her family, and in her heart she thanked God for Kindred Spirits like Marilla. The world was a better place with them in it.

"That moment I realized that I loved your father. And I could never be happy without him. If he died, I might as well die, too. I could not face my future without him, and to think of a life where he was only a memory was too painful. I read my book of revelation that night, and when the morning came I dragged myself down to the garden, where, after a few moments Jerry Buote came along. If anyone knew how Gilbert was doing it had to be him. I managed to call out to him, and then I got the happiest news I had ever received. Gilbert Blythe had 'got de turn las' night', and my heart could again start to beat. I loved him, and he loved me, and nothing could stop us from being together."

"How romantic!" said Rilla with starry eyes. She had never realized that her parents' past had been this romantic. And again she wondered to herself why no one had ever told her. But apparently, by the looks of the others, they didn't know either. She looked at her parents, who both looked as though they were back in Avonlea, and again she couldn't help but smile. They really did love each other. But like mother had said, it had taken them a long walk to get to the point where they actually both admitted it. 

"Yes, it was quite romantic," said the doctor with a laugh. "I improved, I saw Anne frequently, and as the time went by I got more and more sure that finally, finally, had she realized that she loved me too. So I took my time, and one night, one of the last nights of summer I gathered up the courage, and asked her again to be my wife. And this time she said yes." He grinned from ear to ear, his eyes were twinkling and he looked twenty years younger. "And well... the rest… is history."

The audience was shocked. It was… it was absolutely amazing. Such a romantic story! It was nothing like _their_ lives. And none of them could ever expect to have something like that. But at least their parents had had their share of romance, and the memories were still alive. Then Anne rose and looked at Gilbert. "Now I suggest we stop this, and then you men can go clean up. I'll make supper, and together we will sit down and eat your catch." Suddenly all the men looked at each other with suppressed laughter.

"What?" said the doctor's wife and looked at them. 

"Well," said Gilbert and rose. "You see my dear Anne-girl." He laughed again and kissed her forehead. "We didn't catch any fish."


End file.
